Augusta Prep senior is STAR runner-up

Ashwin Rajendra, a senior at Augusta Preparatory Day School, was named Georgia's STAR student runner-up for 2003 by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.

Columbus High School senior Evan Sussenbach was named Georgia's STAR student.

The announcement came Wednesday night at the association's annual banquet.

Ashwin named Tim Shafer, his advanced-placement calculus teacher, as his STAR teacher.

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Ashwin, 17, is the son of Dushi and Ajita Rajendra of Martinez.

Ashwin and Shafer were honored at the banquet with 22 other finalists in the event, which began earlier this year with more than 468 STAR students from the state's participating public and private schools.

Ashwin Rajendra recently was selected as a semifinalist in the 2003 Presidential Scholars competition. About 2,600 were identified as candidates in the program and only 500 semifinalists, including Ashwin, were selected from across the country. This month, 141 Presidential Scholars will be selected from the list of semifinalists.

Ashwin scored a perfect 1,600 on his SAT.

Ashwin also is a state cross country track champion, was named the 2003 Foreign Language Student of the CSRA (private and public schools) at a ceremony at Augusta State University, and has taken nine advanced-placement courses.

Shafer is a graduate of Yale University and received his master of arts in teaching from the University of New Hampshire.